Curate Your Own Membership: A New Approach to Museum Membership at the Whitney

An unidentified woman is shown viewing art at the Whitney Biennial at the Whitney Museum in New York. AP Photo/Sara Rose.

NEW YORK, NY.- Starting this week, the Whitney Museum of American Art is offering a unique, personalized way to become a member of the Museum with its innovative Curate Your Own Membership program. The Museum is inviting new members to custom design their membership, choosing from five series with exclusive benefits, only available at the Whitney.

"To our knowledge, the Whitney is the first museum to offer its members a chance to personalize their way of belonging to the institution," says Kristen Shepherd Denner, the Whitneys Director of Membership & Annual Fund. "Museum memberships are generally centered on demographicsseniors, students, couples, and so on. By tapping into each individuals core values and allowing them to customize their benefits, we hope to deliver a bespoke membership that is meaningful to them personally and responds directly to their interests and needs. Our goal is to give members a richer, more rewarding experience at the Whitney and communicate with them in a more relevant way. We want their relationship with us to growand by extension, their support of the arts in their community."

The Whitney's Membership Department created the Curate Your Own Membership program by learning about members and visitors in focus groups and surveys. "We found," says Denner, "that members fell into clusters that represent different ways to experience art and museums. Some members want more social events and to meet like-minded people at our fantastic openings; others wanted us to develop benefits that responded to their desire to have individual engagement with the art, or to learn more about the curatorial process. We developed our five benefit series to reach these clusters and fulfill needs not typically met by museum memberships."

In addition to enjoying Core Benefitsunlimited free admission, special discounts, and exhibition previewsCurate Your Own members can select from the following series: Social, Insider, Learning, Family, and Philanthropy. One series is included with an $85 Individual or $125 Dual membership. Additional series can be purchased for $40.

Curate Your Own Membership Series and Benefits:

Social SeriesFor mingling with like-minded individuals at cultural events

 Four passes to the summer opening cocktail reception for the Whitneys newest exhibitions and Museum guest passes to share with friends and colleagues

 Invitations to an annual champagne reception in the Trustee Boardroom and ongoing invitations to cultural events throughout NYC